Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Boston's Private Lightning came together in the mid 70's, under the direction of brother/sister musicians, Paul and Patty Van Ness. The band built a respectable following along the east coast and soon the band's manager, Fred Heller, had facilitated a contract for the band with A&M Records. The band were jetted off to Monserrat where they spent the next month crafting their debut. It was a short time later before the band were finally able to hear the finished product, which took place at their record release party. The members were horrified to hear that the rough mix and final mix were completely different, as most of the dynamics were muted and the overall production too brittle and trebly.

The band soldiered on and toured the New England region relentlessly, but A&M had usurped most of the band's promotional budget on many of their more established artists, leaving very little to keep the band on the road. The band began work on demos for their followup album, but things finally came to a halt in 1981. Paul now works in film/video production, Patty is a renowned medieval instrumentalist and the remaining members have worked with The Souls and Hank Decken as well as various roles in production/engineering.

The album is a curious blend of art rock, new wave, power pop and AOR. With fluid violin work permeating each of the tracks, there's a unique vibe happening throughout. I hear similarities to late period FM and even Spy to some extent. There's nothing here that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the hooks are average to these ears. No doubt, there's an audience for this album and thanks to Steven, we have a sweet vinyl transfer up for grabs. Take a listen already, eh?

Great to see you back! Just a little request...Any chance you can repost Couchois self titled release and if you have their second album Nasty Hardware I'd love to check that out as well. I asked if you had Snail's self titled release a while back don't know if you had that or not.

Hy, my friend,Your blog is great. My name is Marcos, i'm a brazilian guy and most of those bands are unknown here. They are very good!When i was downloading your files, i found some broken links. I've made a list with them.Now i would like to ask you a big favor: "Please, repost them". I'll be gratefull. Thanks a lot. God Bless you.

Hy, my friend,Your blog is great. My name is Marcos, i'm a brazilian guy and most of those bands are unknown here. They are very good!When i was downloading your files, i found some broken links. I've made a list with them.Now i would like to ask you a big favor: "Please, repost them". I'll be gratefull. Thanks a lot. God Bless you.

Hey, hope everything's all right, it's all gone quiet.I've set up a new blog to host all my old links from here & there, you might enjoy it, pay us a visit:http://guntherspaps.blogspot.com/best wishes,bigfootkit

Ronnie Hi, I love your blog a sentence that does not continue, you would like to participate in my blog?With his records already posted or others, would veneficioso, if you could share my blog, think again!.. I have about 2,000 people daily visits .I am from argentina, use a translator that my English is not good.MY BLOG IS www.kissmarthree.blogspot.comI hope his answer whether or not I do not feel offended if he says no.think again, it is a pity is an excellent material.greetings.

I am also looking for the single but it's the song "Physical Speed"The reason is that the radio played radio version replaced the word "AM" with "FM"....That was the only change that I am aware of....Would you or anyone have a copy of that version?Thank you!

Loads of material, not on the album or demos for the album along with a concert and the single version of 'Physical Speed' with the FM radio part added. The website was created by the former drummer of the band. Lots of good stuff, enjoy!

Thanks for posting. If this was in the MP3 format I would have grabbed it, but you are keeping me honst. Thanks to the final poster telling us this record is going to be re-released. Physical Speed is one of my all time favorite songs to this day.

I thought I was the only one out here that remembers "Physical Speed". I recall listening to this on the radio wayyyyy back when and scrambling for my "tape recorder". Lost that tape which left me wondering after all these years if I'd ever find it listed anywhere. Awesome to have found other fans.

Subscribe To Me!

The Lowdown

"Robots For Ronnie" does not knowingly post items that are commercially available. If you are the legal copyright holder and wish to have the content removed, contact the owner of this blog and we will comply.